"Well, I never!" chuckled Walter. "That fellow had me fooled. I didn't know but we were about to be attacked by Mexican robbers."
"Oh, Walter! do you suppose they were desperadoes who came through the Gap day-before-yesterday morning?" Nan asked.
"I don't know. Maybe Rhoda and her father were fooling."
"But they take it so coolly."
"They take everything coolly," said the boy, with admiration. "I never saw such people! Why, these cowboys do the greatest stunts on horseback, and make no bones of it. No circus or Wild West show was ever the equal of it.
"Hullo, here's Rhoda now!"
The Rose Ranch girl appeared, smiling and wide awake. She did not appear to be lame from the previous day's riding.
"Hear that renegade calling out there?" she asked. "He's followed
the herd down from the hills. Come on and let's catch our ponies.
We'll take a ride out that way before breakfast. If it is the horse
I think it is, you'll see something worth while."
They hurried down to the corral where the riding ponies were. With her rope Rhoda noosed first her own, then Nan's, and then Walter's mounts. The saddles hung along the fence, and they cinched them on tight to the round barrels of the ponies, and then mounted.
The horses were fresh again, and started off spiritedly. The sun was coming up now, and again the wonder of sunrise on the plains impressed the girl from Tillbury.